Personal Finance
Mea Culpa
Okay, apparently this whole financial mess is my fault.
I’m sorry that I brought the whole global financial system down with my irrestible baby blues. I will try harder next time to keep myself (and others) under control while I have my eyes open.
What a tool.
Cringe Inducing 2008 Predictions
It’s not really fair to pick on any one investment advisor. Everyone got this year wrong. But apparently Elaine Garzarelli went around telling everyone that she advised all of her clients to sell before the 1987 crash and has been living off that since. Her predictions for 2008?
Garzarelli is advising investors to buy some of [...]
About Those UAW Wages
Republicans want union members to “feel the pain” on any bailout. They derailed the auto bailout when the UAW refused to cost wages as quickly as the GOP Senators demanded. While I am of two minds about the bailout and auto worker wages, it seems as though the UAW has already made concessions to get [...]
The Bailout Is Bigger Than You Think
The other day I asked why people weren’t reading The Big Picture, which has been all over the bailout mess. Barry Ritholz, the person behind the site, is more on the pessimistic side but it has been amusing watching him squirm as some of his predictions come true.
Today’s installment of “OMG youhavetoreadthis” compares the current [...]
Perfect
I need to ask. If you’re not reading The Big Picture, why?
Just How Bad Is It?
This is a pretty cool graph from The Big Picture reflecting the return of the S&P for every year since 1825 in bar format.
As you can see, only 1931 compares to 2008 YTD, and that includes the run-up in the past week. Unless we get a huge Santa Claus rally in December this looks to [...]
Another Interesting Weekend
Another weekend of intrigue in the financial markets. Two brokerages didn’t survive and it looks like the US’s largest insurer might not either. I’ve been watching the posts on The Big Picture all weekend with amusement. He’s taken an almost gleeful approach to the implosions, though I’d imagine it’s more of an “I told you [...]
Blockbuster Wants Circuit City?
Ok, I’m no genius and certainly not an expert on all things business, but I have zero idea what the heck is going on with Blockbuster actively seeking to buy Circuit City. To me, and it seems a lot of the research analysts in the Reuters piece, it seems like one company that’s in serious trouble [...]
Did CEOs Time Charitable Donations Too?
The muckracking professor whose research lead to the whole stock option backdating scandal (albeit, a decade later) is back at it again. Apparently, he’s now looking to see whether insiders backdated stock donations to their charitable foundations to “maximize tax benefits”.
As Portfolio points out, there are two ways that insiders could get this lucky: one legal [...]
The Fed’s Oh, S%^& Moment
Until today, I don’t think I was all that concerned about the economy. Yes, it was slowing. Yes, we’re probably headed for a recession. But these are natural business cycles. Even all the talk about stupid tax tricks didn’t have me all that concerned.
Then I heard that the European markets dropped 7-8% yesterday (I was [...]
